SNIC: Brazil’s cement demand fairly stable

Figures released by Brazil’s cement association, SNIC, reveal that the country’s cement demand reached 3.872 Mt in February 2018, down 0.8% from 3.902 Mt reported in the year-ago period.

Sales in the northern region decreased by 16.9% y/y to 0.167 Mt, the largest regional contraction in the country in February 2018. The northeast and southeast saw demand decrease by 5.1 and 0.5%, respectively, when compared with February 2017. This resulted in a demand of 0.798 Mt in the northeast and 1.843 Mt in the southeast. In both the central-west and southern part of the country, markets expanded by 5.6% y/y to 0.841 Mt and 0.682 Mt, respectively.

For the first two months of 2018, domestic sales reached 8.197 Mt, largely stable when compared with 8.228 Mt sold in the same period the year before. In the southeast, the largest regional market, sales increased by 3% y/y to 3.904 Mt but in the northeast, the second-largest province in terms of cement demand, offtake fell by 7% y/y to 1.755 Mt. Sales in the south remained almost level at 1.348 Mt. In the central-eastern part of the country consumption rose by 3.6% y/y to 0.813 Mt but in the north it saw a 11.7% drop to 0.377 Mt.

Exports remained level at 3000 t in February 2018 when compared with February 2017, but fell from 10 000 t to 9000 t in the first two months of the year, down 10% y/y.